Portrait nominee

professional category

Bakhtiyar Berkin

Medusa (Single)

DESCRIPTION

"Medusa" represents link of modern-day narcissism with mythology and self-identity. It symbolises a very human propensity for superficial. I associate modern day vanity with the myth of Medusa. Medusa, once a beautiful woman, was transformed into a beast due to her vanity. Still beautiful in face, Medusa had venomous snakes instead of her hair. She became so terrible that gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to stone. This myth can be interpreted in many ways. One interpretation is that vanity can be destructive; and depicts danger that beauty holds for the one who falls for it.

This image was shot on a large format film camera.

AUTHOR

Throughout my childhood and adolescence I have been suffering from recurring sleep paralysis episodes. During my episodes I have experienced a state where I was mentally awake with my body being paralysed in the sleep state. Those episodes were accompanied by very vivid hallucinations. These experiences helped me to learn how to accept contradiction between dream and reality. It gave me an inspiration to bring these unnerving, illogical scenes in to everyday life. And that is why I chose surrealism as my photographic style.
I feel that creating surrealistic photographs allows my unconscious to be expressed.

MA Photography, London College of Communication, University of The Arts, London 2015-present

BA (Hons) Fine Art, Camberwell College of Arts, University of The Arts, London 2012-15